Tuesday, August 11, 2009

So what features do Python programmers love to say about their code? First off they like to crow about how clean their code looks without sigils, those nasty $, @, %, &, * that Perl programmers have to put up with. Ah, but that means you cannot do any interpolation in Python strings, because Python does not know the difference between bare text and a variable name.

Anyway, Python uses _ and __ (double underscore) to change the behaviour of variables, if these are not sigils then what is? Python uses an @ to prefix a decorator. Sounds like a sigil to me.

Perl 6 mandates that variables are declared using 'my' (or some other scope indicator), but Python does not require that. This means that in Python you cannot declare a variable for scope inside a local block, like an 'if' or loop.

Python does not use braces to delimit a block. Nice, unless you need to declare an empty block, so you need a 'pass' statement (reminds me of NEXT-SENTENCE).

Most of that is trivial to be honest, none is important enough to make a strong case either way.

So what is? Threading.

A recuring theme at the EuroPython conference was the fact that CPython is not truely multi-threaded because of the GIL (Global Interpreter Lock). Ruby has the Global VM Lock. There are various implementations which bypass this issue, Jython and Iron Python do not have a problem with multi-threading but both are several versions behind and I won't be holding my breath for a Python 3 version. Google is apparently working on a CPython version which eliminates the GIL, but again that is some way off.

In a classic "sour grapes", the Python community say that threading is too difficult anyway, so use processes instead. Very few people at the conference were swallowing that line.

Multithreading should be a selling point of Perl 6 and Parrot, but unfortunately is not yet complete and will not be in Rakudo Star. That is a great pity.

Wednesday, August 05, 2009

Big news from the current Perl conference YAPC Europe 2009 here in Lisbon is that Rakudo * (star) will be released in spring 2010. Rakudo is Perl 6 on Parrot, which is an equivalent to the JVM or CLI.

Is that an official Perl 6 release? Well, it is the nearest to official that you will see. The Perl 6 team are keen to point out that there will be no such thing as a official version, just different implementations. I guess they are looking at Python for their inspiration there.

This could be make-or-break for Perl. It shouldn't be, Perl 5 will continue no matter what, but the new stuff is what will make Perl cool again in the eyes of the fashion conscious. We all know that fashion is fickle, illogical, and driven more by hormones than intellect. We also know how important it is in decision making. Much as it would like to, the Perl community cannot pretend that Perl 6/Rakudo is too far away to worry about. It is six months away.

My worry is that expectations will be high - the release will be incomplete and they are very open about that. The Rakudo "pumpking" (project manager), Patrick Michaud, sees this as a test release to encourage people to write applications to find bugs and feed back into the development. Trouble is that companies have been burned too often in the past to invest in applications on an incomplete and possibly flaky platform.

The dilemma is that if something is not released soon then Perl will have missed the boat - which is already upping anchor and about to steam away.